MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:20 am**

Some time ago I fiddled with MX-19 and went back to my usual OS which I have used for 20 years. Then when MX-21 came along I was really impressed with it's speed and simplicity and decided to switch over to it. It's been a couple of months now, and I am switching back to my old OS. Why? I listen to a lot of online music and watch videos. Many have been audio equalized for a variety of reasons and I need to adjust the sound. I have battled with Pulse Effects and it's incredible complexity and have lost. All I want is a simple equalizer like the one I have used for years,,,alsamixer. So while I believe MX-21 to be the best OS these days, I am going back to my clunky old OS because IT WORKS for me.

Many thanks to all the users who have helped me, and a Merry Christmas to all.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:45 am**

It’s a shame, but you have to use what you want.

I know this isn’t a help thread, I assume you’ve asked about mixers/equalizers, and out of the 42 different ones… none of them met your needs either?

I say this cause I packaged pamixer not long ago and I see there is alsamixergui available.

Either way, we’ll be here. Enjoy your holidays.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am**

I'm confused: did you enter this command in a terminal?

Code: Select all

alsamixer

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:03 am**

SwampRabbit wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:45 am It’s a shame, but you have to use what you want.

I know this isn’t a help thread, I assume you’ve asked about mixers/equalizers, and out of the 42 different ones… none of them met your needs either?

I say this cause I packaged pamixer not long ago and I see there is alsamixergui available.

Either way, we’ll be here. Enjoy your holidays.

Alsamixergui runs but only shows volume sliders. I need frequency adjustment.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:11 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am I'm confused: did you enter this command in a terminal?
Code: Select all
alsamixer

Yes I did, and what it gives me is Master and Capture Volume levels, hardly a frequency equalizer.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:44 am**

ionmich wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:11 am
Jerry3904 wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am I'm confused: did you enter this command in a terminal?
Code: Select all
alsamixer
Yes I did, and what it gives me is Master and Capture Volume levels, hardly a frequency equalizer.

What's a 'frequency equalizer?' I've seen lots of equalizers with sliders or knobs for different frequency bands, but I'm having trouble visualizing this.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:50 am**

Huh. I use DeaDBeeF for music playing, which is not only close to lossless but has an built-in frequency equalizer. And online I use one of the equalizer extensions for Firefox/Chrome that work pretty well. But I imagine you have explored all that already.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:54 am**

arjaybe wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:44 am
ionmich wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:11 am
Jerry3904 wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 am I'm confused: did you enter this command in a terminal?
Code: Select all
alsamixer
Yes I did, and what it gives me is Master and Capture Volume levels, hardly a frequency equalizer.
What's a 'frequency equalizer?' I've seen lots of equalizers with sliders or knobs for different frequency bands, but I'm having trouble visualizing this.

I think this is what he is talking about

https://www.dak.com/equalizer-and-frequ ... -tutorial/

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm**

I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects) has a nice frequency equalizer, if I understand the term. And that's just one of its modules. PulseEffects is available via the MX Package Installer in MX-19. I'm not running MX-21 yet, so I don't know if it uses the newer EasyEffects app.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:40 pm**

bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects)

…. the newer EasyEffects app.

Do you have a reference for this?

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:44 pm**

bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects) has a nice frequency equalizer, if I understand the term. And that's just one of its modules. PulseEffects is available via the MX Package Installer in MX-19. I'm not running MX-21 yet, so I don't know if it uses the newer EasyEffects app.

Yes PulseEffects has a great frequency equalizer with enough adjustable frequency bands and effects to run a recording studio. But I don't run a recording studio and I don't need all the complexity. Alsamixer was more than enough to adjust for vocals and reduce exaggerated base.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 pm**

SwampRabbit wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:40 pm
bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects)

…. the newer EasyEffects app.
Do you have a reference for this?

I originally discovered PulseEffects when it was mentioned in this article. The link to the PulseEffects site now redirects to https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects. The README.md file states:

This application was formerly known as PulseEffects, but it was renamed to EasyEffects after it started to use GTK4 and GStreamer usage was replaced by native PipeWire filters.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 2:05 pm**

ionmich wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:44 pm
bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects) has a nice frequency equalizer, if I understand the term. And that's just one of its modules. PulseEffects is available via the MX Package Installer in MX-19. I'm not running MX-21 yet, so I don't know if it uses the newer EasyEffects app.
Yes PulseEffects has a great frequency equalizer with enough adjustable frequency bands and effects to run a recording studio. But I don't run a recording studio and I don't need all the complexity. Alsamixer was more than enough to adjust for vocals and reduce exaggerated base.

I thought the same thing. But PulseEffects does have some other nice modules. I quite like Auto Gain. That did a great job of bringing forth the sounds I originally wanted the Equalizer for. It's been fun experimenting with the modules even though I have no idea what I'm doing.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:28 pm**

@ionmich
On your old clunky OS, how do you get alsamixer to do frequency equalizing. Alsamixer isn't an equalizer.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:48 pm**

bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 pm
SwampRabbit wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:40 pm
bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm I think PulseEffects (or it's current incarnation EasyEffects)

…. the newer EasyEffects app.
Do you have a reference for this?
I originally discovered PulseEffects when it was mentioned in this article. The link to the PulseEffects site now redirects to https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects. The README.md file states:
This application was formerly known as PulseEffects, but it was renamed to EasyEffects after it started to use GTK4 and GStreamer usage was replaced by native PipeWire filters.

I'm fairly sure we don't have GTK+ 4 available in MX 21.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 4:00 pm**

ionmich wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:20 am ...
All I want is a simple equalizer like the one I have used for years,,,alsamixer.
...

ionmich wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:44 pm ...Alsamixer was more than enough to adjust for vocals and reduce exaggerated base.

So here is what I don't get, forgive me for knowing nothing about any of this, but I don't get what changed between MX-19 and MX-21 in terms of alsa and alsamixer?
I mean you say it has everything you want in MX-19, but I don't know what could have changed in MX-21 since we don't actually provide alsa and all the other bits (it comes from Debian).

So what I mean is everything is coming from Debian including: alsa-lib, alsa-plugins, alsa-tools, alsa-utils (this is where alsamixer is), alsaequal, libasound2-plugins, etc, etc.

I'm not trying to persuade you to stay with MX, like I said in my first post, use what you want, because ultimately you having what you want and need is what matters.
But...

I'm trying to understand and figure out why something would work in MX-19 but not MX-21 so we can make MX-21 better for ALL users.
So what's the delta here...
- Could it be that a specific package isn't included in the ISO?
- Is something just broke?
- Did something fundamentally change between Debian 10 and 11 that we weren't aware of that needs addressed?

There is alsamixer-equalizer-antix, which I have packaged, but this just drops a asound.conf into /etc. When I tested it, I couldn't figure out if it works or not, (not to derail this thread) but maybe someone else can test it?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kQDBq2 ... sp=sharing

bwhawk wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:59 pm I originally discovered PulseEffects when it was mentioned in this article. The link to the PulseEffects site now redirects to https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects. The README.md file states:
This application was formerly known as PulseEffects, but it was renamed to EasyEffects after it started to use GTK4 and GStreamer usage was replaced by native PipeWire filters.

Thanks! Good to know. It looks like we need to adjust to this new thing at some point.

Edit: I missed that GTK4 bit and Stevo caught it

Maybe I'm lucky and spoiled, audio or at least voices/noises outside of those in my head, seem to always work when I use headphones or speakers... so this brute is good to go with audio stuff as long as I hear basic beeps and boops I'm a happy camper.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 5:02 pm**

figueroa wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 3:28 pm @ionmich
On your old clunky OS, how do you get alsamixer to do frequency equalizing. Alsamixer isn't an equalizer.

This is what I use...https://pasteboard.co/YPt427vdl0ib.png and I was wrong thinking that it was part of Alsamixer. I apologize for my ignorance,

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:28 pm**

I did all my testing with a live MX-21 USB (not installed on hardware). I first tried PulseAudio Equalizer but was never able to get it to adjust the sound. It opened fine (running "qpaeq" in a Terminal) and everything looked okay, but none of the sliders had any effect on the audio at any time. A number of websites (including MX Linux from MX-19.2 and earlier) said to enter the below two lines to the end of /etc/pulse/default.pa but that did not work with the version I was using in MX-21. This is what I had entered in default.pa (and without these two lines, PulseAudio Equalizer would not even open).

Code: Select all

### Load the integrated PulseAudio equalizer and D-Bus module
load-module module-equalizer-sink
load-module module-dbus-protocol

After any adjustments I killed pulseaudio, confirmed the process was killed, and then restarted pulseaudio. I was hoping I could get this working since it seemed to fit your desire for a simple equalizer. I might revisit this if the below alternative is still not to your liking, although it doesn't look promising that I can get PulseAudio Equalizer working since many people have had problems with it getting to work.

With the above said, I was able to get the PulseEffects equalizer working in MX-21. I know you said "...Pulse Effects and it's incredible complexity have lost..." but while it is capable of making many many adjustments, it can also be configured to be relatively simple, which I will elaborate on below. Perhaps if you try using it for a few hours you may not see it as being complicated. For example, here I have it configured to display only five equalization bands. It can be configured to have anywhere from 1-30 bands.

The below image shows it playing only voice audio from a YouTube video:

PulseEffects.png

This is what I did:

Install pulseeffects (MX-21 Stable Repo). This will also automatically install "gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects". If PulseEffects is launched at this point only the "Applications" entry will be adjustable, which will have only a volume slider. None of the other effects will work at this point (they will be greyed out).
Install lsp-plugins. This is necessary to enable the equalizer, and this does not happen automatically when installing pulseeffects, at least not in MX-21 (I never tested it in MX-19).
Click the speaker icon in the upper-left of the PulseEffects window and then highlight the "Equalizer" entry on the left column to get to the equalizer section.
There are 30 bands of frequencies by default (that is the maximum). That number can be changed by clicking on the "gear cog" directly above all the slider bands in the middle as shown in the below image. For example, if you want only 10 bands displayed, then enter "10" under "Bands" in this settings window.

However, only changing the number of frequency bands will leave them with uneven frequencies. To get all of them correctly (evenly) adjusted, click on "Calculate Frequencies" at the bottom of this settings window. The below image shows the window to make these changes, and shows how it looks with 10 bands selected. Note the 10 bands have frequencies evenly spaced from 30Hz to 15.0kHz:
PulseEffects_Band_Quantity_Adjust.png
The minimum and maximum frequencies for the entire equalizer are set with in the primary settings, which is a group of four horizontal bars in the upper-right corner of the window, "Spectrum" tab. You may or may not want to change that. It is easy to restore any changes back to the default settings, as well as just flattening the equalizer output.
In my short testing I found that the PulseEffect window had to remain open or minimized for the changes to remain. Once I closed the PulseAudio window, the changes reverted back to the MX-21 default settings. Opening PulseEffect again would restore the settings.

Custom presets can be saved - see the "Presets" button on the top-right of the window.

All the Up/Down arrows next to the effect list on the left column is only to adjust their position.
Each slider's center frequency can be individually changed by clicking on the "gear cog" above each slider.

I know we're in "complicated" territory here, but I mention it only because It is extremely difficult to read the numbers in this settings window when using the default MX-21 window theme. I changed to a dark theme in PulseEffects to make it easier to read, and hence all the images in this post are in the Dark Theme because of that. This is done by going to the primary settings window, by clicking on the four horizontal bars on the top-right of the PulseEffects window and select "Dark Theme". This image shows a setting window to adjust the frequency for an individual band:
PulseEffects_Individual_Band_Settings.png

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2021 10:47 pm**

Stuart_M wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:28 pm

Install pulseeffects (MX-21 Stable Repo). This will also automatically install "gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects". If PulseEffects is launched at this point only the "Applications" entry will be adjustable, which will have only a volume slider. None of the other effects will work at this point (they will be greyed out).

Install lsp-plugins. This is necessary to enable the equalizer, and this does not happen automatically when installing pulseeffects, at least not in MX-21 (I never tested it in MX-19).

Just saw this thread and wanted to add my two cents.

I wasn't sure which recommended package got mine working but it's good to know for the next time.

viewtopic.php?p=665354#p665354

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2021 12:59 pm**

This is an update to my Post #18 above. In this post I have now tested PulseEffects in MX-19.4 Xfce and I also found a better way to install PulseEffects in MX-21, or perhaps I should say "more complete" instead of "better".

I installed PulseEffects in MX-19.4 Xfce from the MXPI Stable Repository, and that one installation allowed all the effects in PulseEffects to run.

I think PulseEffects 4.6.9 in MX-19.4 Xfce looks better than PulseEffects 4.8.4 in MX-21 Xfce, which can be seen in the images in Post #18 above. Below is an image of v4.6.9 in MX-19.4 Xfce set up for 5 equalization bands. The Dark theme is not used in this image. Note how the bands are grouped closer together.

PulseEffects_MX-19.4.png

A little clarification. As stated in my Post #18 above, installing only PulseEffects in MX-21 Xfce, PulseEffects would not run unless I also installed lsp-plugins (also Stable Repo). What I did not mention was installing those two packages only allowed the equalizer to run, but none of the other effects could be used/enabled - they remained greyed-out. I wanted to get PulseEffects running so every effect would be available to use and not just the equalizer. This is how:

First I made note of every package that is installed when PulseEffects (4.6.9) is installed in MX-19.4, which are the following:

Code: Select all

calf-plugins (0.90.1-2)
gir1.2-gst-plugins-bad-1.0 (1.14.4-1+deb10u2) [installed by default]
gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects (4.6.9-1~mx19+1) [installed by default]
gstreamer1.0-autogain-pulseeffects (4.6.9-1~mx19+1)
gstreamer1.0-convolver-pulseeffects (4.6.9-1~mx19+1)
gstreamer1.0-crystalizer-pulseeffects (4.6.9-1~mx19+1)
libebur128-1 (1.2.4-2)
libzita-convolver3 (3.1.0-7)
lsp-plugins-lv2 (1.1.9-4~mx19+1)
mda-lv2 (1.2.2~dfsg0-2)
pulseeffects (4.6.9-1~mx19+1)
rubberband-ladspa (1.8.1-7)
zam-plugins (3.9~repack3-1)

Now I go to MX-21 Xfce and install every package that was installed with PulseEffects in the MX-19 installation with the exception of two packages that are not available as shown below.

Code: Select all

calf-plugins (0.90.3-1+b1)
gir1.2-gst-plugins-bad-1.0 (1.18.4-3) INSTALLED BY DEFAULT IN MX-21
gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects (4.8.4-1) INSTALLED BY DEFAULT IN MX-21
gstreamer1.0-autogain-pulseeffects (4.8.4-1)
gstreamer1.0-convolver-pulseeffects (4.8.4-1)
gstreamer1.0-crystalizer-pulseeffects (4.8.4-1)
libebur128-1 NOT AVAILABLE IN MX-21
libzita-convolver3 NOT AVAILABLE IN MX-21
lsp-plugins-lv2 (1.1.30-1~mx21+1)
mda-lv2 (1.2.6-1)
pulseeffects (4.8.4-1)
rubberband-ladspa (1.9.0-1)
zam-plugins (3.14~repack3-1)

The end result of the above is that all of the effects in PulseEffects are available to use with the only exception being "Noise Reduction", which remains grey-out. So if you want (almost) everything to work in PulseEffects with MX-21 Xfce, then install the packages shown in this post.

In my Post #18 I mentioned that PulseEffects had to keep a window open/minimized for the effects to remain. However that is not entirely true. When PulseEffects is run as a service it will be running in the background, so its window does not need to be kept open/minimized to keep an enabled effect running. To run as a service and have it automatically start at login, go to the primary settings (4 horizontal bars on the top-right on the window) > General tab > enable "Start Service at Login". That enables PulseEffects to autostart in Session and Startup.

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:47 pm**

Good work! We should probably bring that to the attention of @dolphin_oracle for consideration in MXPI.

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:51 pm**

so dumb question:

does pulseeffects work if its installed this way:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install --install-recommends pulseeffects

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2021 3:13 pm**

Yes - the initial output is as shown in the code window below. Accepted it and PulseEffects works fine with all the effects enabled with the exception of "Import Model" which is greyed-out, the same as my result in Post #20.

Code: Select all

sudo apt install --install-recommends pulseeffects
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  calf-plugins gir1.2-gst-plugins-bad-1.0 gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects
  gstreamer1.0-autogain-pulseeffects gstreamer1.0-convolver-pulseeffects
  gstreamer1.0-crystalizer-pulseeffects libebur128-1 libzita-convolver4 lsp-plugins-lv2
  lsp-plugins-r3d-glx rubberband-ladspa zam-plugins
Suggested packages:
  ladish
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  calf-plugins gir1.2-gst-plugins-bad-1.0 gstreamer1.0-adapter-pulseeffects
  gstreamer1.0-autogain-pulseeffects gstreamer1.0-convolver-pulseeffects
  gstreamer1.0-crystalizer-pulseeffects libebur128-1 libzita-convolver4 lsp-plugins-lv2
  lsp-plugins-r3d-glx pulseeffects rubberband-ladspa zam-plugins
0 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 0 to remove and 46 not upgraded.
Need to get 45.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 192 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Had I known (remembered) the recommends command I'd have saved myself a few hours of monkeying around...

Edit: Just FYI, the recommends installer for PulseEffects in MX-21 made the same package installations that I did manually with the following four exceptions.

1. libebur128-1 was installed in MX-21 (it was not listed in the MX-21 MXPI)

2. libzita-convolver4 was installed in MX-21 (it was not listed in the MX-21 MXPI and "convolver3" was used in MX-19)

3. lsp-plugins-r3d-glx was installed in MX-21 (there was no mention of it in the MX-19 installation of PulseEffects)

4. mda-lv2 was not installed in MX-21 (it was installed with the MX-19 installation of PulseEffects).

Posted: **Sun Dec 19, 2021 9:59 am**

Pulseeffects is sweet. You can drag the icon to your panel and have it start at boot. Thanks Stuart_M. Merry Xmas too y'all.
Best of all, the basically crappy speakers on my laptop make good use of the 'Auto Gain' feature which is now always on by default (and the only thing I use it for atm).

Posted: **Wed Jan 03, 2024 6:55 pm**

I am back on MX Linux. My equalizer solution was simple. I stuck a car equalizer under my monitor foot and run it off my desktop power supply. It gives me 7 bands, adjustable by knobs as sound is playing. I do appreciate all of your efforts to help me.

Posted: **Wed Jan 03, 2024 9:42 pm**

I wasn't going to try to follow this post as it seemed somewhat confusing but the car equalizer kind of brought it full circle.
@ionmich I suspect that alsamixer was not the app that worked as an equalizer, perhaps alsaequl or something else.

Anyway, In MX-21.3 Xfce an MXPI search for equalizer in the Test Repo finds pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa
Homepage: https://github.com/pulseaudio-equalizer ... /equalizer

I just installed it and only played with it for a minute, but it seems to work OK.
Volume Control pavucontrol switches from the USB DAC back to laptop speakers, of which I might find a fix, but other than that it seems fine. I like my settings rather flat, but I'll probably keep it installed.

This link https://www.baeldung.com/linux/sound-equalizers also mentions Easy Effects, formerly Pulse Effects.

Good Luck!

Posted: **Thu Jan 04, 2024 4:16 am**

If you have a help question, please ask in the help forum. Don't dig up an old topic. Thanks.

Posted: **Thu Jan 04, 2024 11:03 am**

Hello Eadwine,

I'm not sure if post # 27 was directed to me or meant for another topic.
I'm receptive if I did something wrong, but the only thing that I can see is that part of my reply may have been misinterpreted as a request for help was:

Volume Control pavucontrol switches from the USB DAC back to laptop speakers, of which I might find a fix, but other than that it seems fine. I like my settings rather flat, but I'll probably keep it installed.

That was simply an explanation stating that my solution perhaps did not work perfectly.

I think that it is a good solution to this topic if I correctly understand what the OP wanted but this topic seemed confusing to me as I suspect mixers and equalizers, and alsamixer and alsaequal, (and perhaps other terms) may have been conflated.

Cheers!

MX Linux Forum

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